
4
STUDIES ON THE GOSPEL MESSAGE.
to speak. of our
duty
to read the Scriptures. Where there is
reverence, love, trust; where there is joy in communion with
God, we look upon the reading of Scripture not as
a
duty,—
one among many others. It stands by itself.
Listening to the
voice of God is not one of many duties, but it is the source
as well as the regulator of all duties.
It is not merely a work
which our conscience declares to be right, but our very con-
science, and affections, and will, and mind, our whole inner
man, receives from this Word light and strength.
We feel it necessary to read the Scriptures, just as food is
necessary to sustain life, and as we desire to breathe pure and
fresh air.
It is a necessity, not a compulsion of an external kind,
which is opposed to our nature, and which is as a mechanical
burden imposed on us. It is a necessity, in the sense that
our whole spiritual life craves for it, and can not prosper with-
out it.
And is not one reason of our languid and feeble life
the simple fact that we do not breathe sufficiently the Bible air?
Sermons and tracts and religious books contain not sufficiently
that ozone which is the exclusive characteristic of God's Word.
"But it may not be unnecessary to add a word on the copious
reading of Scripture.
Read the whole Scripture, for Scripture is
a connected whole.
Do not neglect the historical, or prophetic,
or doctrinal portions. Forget not the book of Proverbs nor
the little Epistle of Philemon. Think not that there is no food
for the soul in the books of the Chronicles. God has given us
the whole, and means us to use the whole, for it is. all profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right-
eousness. We Protestants speak much, and at times somewhat
boastfully, of our great reverence and love for the Bible. Is
our glorying in truth?
Do
we.
love the Bible, not merely as a
text-book from which to collect proofs for our doctrine, an
armory from which to select weapons to defeat our opponents,
but do we love the Bible as God's revelation,
in which our minds
are to be moulded, by which our hearts are to he influenced?
Are there not many portions of Scripture so neglected that, if
to-morrow some magic hand were to efface them from our edi-
tions, very few of us would miss them? Have we not received
it more as a theory than a real and practical belief, that all the
books of Moses, and prophets, and apostles are inspired, author-
itative, profitable? Let us be really disciples. learners, not select-
ing, not rejecting, but receiving
all
our Lord has graciously
caused to be written for our instruction.
"If such a diligent study of the Scripture should interfere with,
our reading of religious literature, we may rest satisfied that
"There shall be delay no longer"—our confidence